Growing in our Personal Life

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God dwells in His children by the new birth we receive from Christ through Salvation (John 1:12). He rejoices as we grow in the knowledge of our salvation (1 John 3:2), but He waits for our realization that we are also the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Once we begin to submit to the Spirit for sanctification of our flesh, then He teaches us about the divinity of Christ, which dwells within us (Galatians 2:20).

We are not separate from Christ, obeying Him in our own power. He permanently dwells in us and expresses Himself through us (Colossians 3:3).

We are children of His death, but we are also children of His resurrection (Luke 20:36). We are transformed into Christ’s image in ever-increasing increments of glory, which come from the Lord’s Spirit.

Then, as unveiled mirrors, we reflect to the world the glory of the Lord within us (2 Corinthians 3:18). In our daily life, as His Spirit molds us into His image, we experience and express all of the attributes of God because He is within us (Romans 8:29).

Jesus gives us the glory that God gave Him, so that we are one with our triune God, just as they are one (John 17:22). If we do not recognize this divine power within us, then we will never live up to our full potential as Christians.

Jesus’ sacrifice enables us to share in His divine nature and to escape the corruption in the world caused by evil human desires (2 Peter 1:4).

As we mature, we attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ who dwells within us (Ephesians 3:16-19). We put on our new self, shaped by the Spirit to be like God, with all of His virtues and holiness within us (Ephesians 4:13,24).

Prayer:

Father God, we often limit our understanding of life to what we perceive through our five senses. We also rely heavily only on what our human mind envisions. We ignore the supernatural and the eternal aspects of Christ within us.

Therefore, we hinder the expression of Your power in and through us. Remind us that You impart Your Spirit to us in order to allow the glorious nature of Christ in us the freedom of expression through us (Colossians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 12:27).

Thought for the Day:

With Christ in us, it does not matter where we live, with whom we live or even if we live alone; Christ’s presence within us rises above the limitations of this earthly realm and our circumstances in it.

I was born with a melancholy personality. Over the years of my life, God’s Spirit transformed many of the negative melancholy characteristics into His fruit. I went from a reclusive introvert to a spirit-filled extrovert.

I used to drown in depression, but now I only experience brief moments of melancholy. My former pessimism is swallowed up by optimistic faith in God’s faithfulness (Hebrews 12:2). It is all a matter of our focus.

Do we see the glass half empty or half full? We make innumerable choices every day, all day. If we use the Philippians 4:8-9 formula, we will choose to think about, say and do only positive words and deeds.

We keep our mind on eternal matters, rather than on worldly, carnal aspects of life. “God promises that if we take care of His business, He will take care of ours” – Kevin Bradley (Matthew 6:33).

Unless we are reaping some corruption, which we sowed into our life, there is nothing that will happen to us, which is not already part of God’s plan for us. Give the truth of this statement some time to sink into your soul.

We no longer tremble in fear of the next natural disaster, relational issue or financial loss devastating us. God has all of this, every single part of it, under His sovereign control. He has a perfect plan for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

Although the destruction accompanying trials seems horrendous at the time, there is always a seed for a miracle in the midst of the catastrophe, and it will eventually turn out for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Prayer:
Father God, you never allow Your Saints, whom You make righteous in Christ, to go hungry (Proverbs 10:3; Psalm 37:25). When we honor and obey You, we lack no good thing (Psalms 34:9-10). When we trust in You, we prosper in every area of our life (Proverbs 28:25). We are Your adopted children, because of our position in Christ (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:20). You are our good and loving Father and You care about every aspect of our life.

Thought for the Day:
We serve a living Savior and minister at the pleasure of our King.

As a triune Being, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To give you an idea of how three beings make up one God consider these: One man is a boy, a father and a grandfather. One apple is skin, flesh and core. A triangle had three points, but is one shape. One basketball is a leather exterior, an inner tube and air. A human being is a triune being: one person with a body, soul and spirit.

Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedient choices, their spirit died. They still had a body and soul, but they carried around a dead spirit within them. Now, we are all born with a dead spirit within us. Our soul – our mind, will and emotions – finds sustenance and joy in this life; but something is always missing. Our spirit is dead and it wants to be reborn.

The only way for our spirit to be Born Again is to end our willful lifestyle and to totally surrender our body and soul to Jesus Christ (John 3:1-21). Many times people come to God to receive His benefits, especially during emotional and/or physical crisis in our life. We are grateful to Him for His solace and provision and we attempt to serve Him. We get religious for a while.

Eventually, when we recover from our crisis, we decide we are strong enough on our own and we do not need God anymore. What happened at this time is that our soul reached out to God. We embraced Him with our whole mind, will and emotions. We looked to Him as a benevolent Father and we took advantage of His generosity, mercy and grace.

However, our spirit was still dead in sin. That dead spirit, like a millstone around our neck (Matthew 18:6), drug us back down into Satan’s domain, and he made sure that we felt secure and settled in our new place in society.

Conversely, if we ever completely fall upon the Rock of Christ (Matthew 21:44; Psalm 18:2), we no longer live for our self, but for the glory and honor of our King. We receive all of the rights and privileges of a King’s kid; and we serve in God’s army to win the lost and to help to save them from a destructive, degenerate life.

Prayer:
Father God, unless we totally embrace You and Your Word, we will never find the total peace we seek or the fulfillment we desire on this earth. Our eternal destination does not depend on our goodness or corruptness, but on our belief or unbelief. Remind us that if we choose not to believe in and surrender totally to You, we condemn our self to a mediocre life on earth and the flames of hell for eternity (John 3:18).

Thought for the Day:
Unless you completely accept all of the Bible’s Words, God’s gift to us, as the only Truth in life, you will be constantly pulled by other ideologies, with which Satan floods the earth.